Principal's Report

Thank You Volunteers!

Last Friday we celebrated our amazing FPS parent volunteers with a special Volunteer Breakfast. It was our way of saying thank you for the countless ways you support our school, from helping in classrooms, on excursions and camps, to serving on school council, planning events, and attending meetings — the impact of your contributions is felt everywhere.

As I chatted with parents during the morning, I was reminded how fortunate we are to have such a generous community, with far-reaching skills, energy, and a willingness to give.

We know many of you couldn’t join us on Friday, so please know we enjoyed a slider and coffee in your honour!

Thank you everyone!

Responding to Parent Opinion Survey Data

School/Parent Communication

At our most recent staff meeting, we analysed the staff and parent opinion survey data. This was an opportunity for us to reflect upon the perspectives of staff and parents, as we develop our school improvement work through our 2026 Annual Implementation Plan.

Two of the questions on the parent survey caught our attention:

There is effective two-way communication between the teachers and parents/caregivers/guardians at this school.
Teachers communicate with me often enough about my child's progress.

This is an item that we have been discussing at our school-level consultative committee meetings. If you have any thoughts or suggestions in relation to school/parent communication, please reach out and let us know.

Keeping Our Grounds Tidy

Another question on the parent survey is, “This school has clean and well-maintained facilities and grounds.”

This has been a whole-school focus for us over recent weeks, particularly in relation to students managing their waste at lunchtime. I had noticed an increase in litter around the school grounds, particularly on Wednesdays (lunch order days). Teachers have been reminding the students of the following three steps when eating:

Eat in eating areas.
Put your litter in the bin or in your lunchbox.
Lunchboxes closed and packed away.

As a result of these reminders, the grounds are looking much neater, which makes everyone feel better.

The next focus will be managing school clothing that is found around the grounds!

Parents Battle of the Bands – Fundraising Results

Parents Battle of the Bands (PBOB) have announced the proceeds from the 2025 Battle Season, which goes to the participating schools' music programs.

Congratulations to North Side Hustle and our amazing school community (for supporting our parent band); this season has been a real success!

Proceeds Summary:

Assembly - Brunswick East Primary School - $1,434
No Hat No Play - Wales Street Primary - $1,680
No Recess - Brunswick South PS - $1,478
Rock'N'Roll Call - North Melbourne Primary School - $1,030
Rage Against the Canteen - Richmond Primary School - $1,501
The Quadranglers - Preston West Primary - $1,523
2nd ImPrestons - Preston South Primary School - $3,315
The Lost Property - Ivanhoe East Primary School - $1,389
North Side Hustle - Fairfield Primary School - $2,330
The Sick Baes - Westgarth Primary School - $1,322
The Nits - Northcote Primary - $1,814
The Thornberries - Thornbury Primary - $1,299

Literacy at FPS

As mentioned in the previous newsletter, our website has been updated to reflect our current teaching practices. The Literacy content can be viewed here and below.

At Fairfield Primary School, we are committed to developing confident, fluent, and motivated readers and writers. Our aim is for every student to become a capable and engaged communicator—able to read with fluency and understanding, write with purpose and creativity, and apply their literacy skills across all areas of the curriculum and beyond.

Our Literacy program is aligned with the Victorian Curriculum 2.0 and grounded in the Structured Literacy approach, ensuring that all students receive explicit, systematic, and evidence‑based instruction. The Big Six of Literacy—oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension—underpin our teaching and guide planning, assessment, and classroom practice.

Our Instructional Model

Literacy is taught daily through a two‑hour literacy block, providing a balanced focus on all components of the Big Six of Literacy. Instruction follows an explicit teaching model with the gradual release of responsibility model (“I Do, We Do, You Do”), ensuring students move from teacher‑led modelling to guided practice, and finally independent application.

Teaching is guided by data, using Department of Education assessment tools, to inform instructional decisions and improve student outcomes. Reading instruction systematically develops decoding, fluency, and comprehension, while writing instruction is structured around the Writing Rope model, integrating transcriptional skills with higher‑level composition. Spelling and grammar are taught explicitly, with teachers using diagnostic assessments to plan targeted support and extension.

Reading & Writing

Students engage daily in reading and writing activities designed to build knowledge, skills, and confidence. In reading, lessons explicitly address the Big Six components, supported by rich discussions and guided practice with increasingly complex texts. Writing instruction includes modelled, shared, guided, and independent writing, with a strong focus on vocabulary and sentence structure to support clarity and expression.

Handwriting is also an important part of our literacy curriculum. When students are fluent and confident with handwriting, their cognitive load is reduced, allowing them to focus on producing high‑quality writing pieces.

What Our Students Say

“Reading helps me to understand books better and I like being able to talk about them with my friends.”
“I feel proud when I finish a piece of writing and share it with my teacher and my class.”
“Our teacher helps us learn spelling rules and then we practise them in our own writing.”
“We learn grammar and vocabulary that helps me make my writing more interesting.”

2026 Grade Structures

We are in the process of organising 2026 class lists. The grade structures for next year are below:

Foundation: 3 classes
Year 1: 3 classes
Year 2: 4 classes
Year 3: 4 classes
Year 4: 3 classes
Year 5: 4 classes
Year 6: 3 classes

Our specialist classes remain the same as this year – all students will participate in the five specialist areas of French, Performing Arts, Physical Education, Science, and Visual Arts.

End of Year Events

This is the time of year where there are lots of celebratory events. Alongside the year level excursions, make a note of the following:

Tuesday 25th November: Year 5 & 6 concert, Mission Implausible
Wednesday 3rd December: Year 3 – 6 House swimming carnival
Thursday 4th December: Year 1: Toy Designer Showcase (Year 1 Classrooms)
Friday 5th December: Foundation 2026, Meet Your Teacher session
Friday 5th December: End of year picnic on the school grounds
Wednesday 10th December: Choir, band & brass festive end of year concert
Friday 12th December: Foundation – Year 2 sports day
Monday 15th December: Foundation – Year 5, meet your 2026 teacher & classmates
Tuesday 16th December: Year 6 Graduation at FPS
Friday 19th December: End of year assembly and early dismissal (1pm)

Specialist Timetable Changes

There will be changes to the specialist timetable during the last four weeks of term. This is to ensure that if students are attending events or excursions on a day that they would normally have a specialist, that they don’t miss out on having their specialist class for the week. The updated timetables will be communicated on Thursdays via 'Next Week at FPS' in Compass.

Enjoy the rest of the week and I will see you at one of these events!

~ Paul Wallace, Principal